"Why are you helping us?" The woman suddenly asked Craig as they journeyed forward.
From the very beginning she was curious as to why he involved himself in their matter. Of course, she had her own assumption that it was due to them being women, and beautiful ones at that. However, matters between the different races weren't so simple. Especially between the humans and the elves.
To understand this, one had to look at the history between the two races.
In terms of appearance, humans and elves were almost identical, if not for the difference between their ears and minor differences in structure. In the beginning, the humans and elves got along quite well due to their similarities. Mostly, it was a partnership that was beneficial in terms of business and military backing.
As a proud and sacred people, the elves originally abstained from getting intimate with humans. As time went by however, there were bound to be those who developed feelings for each other and this led to a disaster.
As the humans and elves began getting intimate with each other they quickly discovered a few problems. Whilst human men could impregnate elven women, the elven men could not do the same with human women.
The source of the problem lied in the potency of the elven sperm. The human egg could not withstand such potency and would lead a premature menstrual cycle. In other words, the egg would be destroyed during copulation.
Also, an even more bizarre side effect was that the human women became hooked on it like a drug. They would seek out elven males to have sex as it brought forth a sort of euphoria, similar to a modern day drug such as heroin.
After a certain period of time, these women would become severely ill and die.
The elven kingdom quickly noticed this and passed down a law that prevented the intimate interaction between elven men and human women. Soon after, they also forbade the interaction between elven women and human men.
Why did they also forbid their women from being intimate with human men? It was because the matters were even worse in that circumstance.
Although human men could impregnate elven women, the child brought forth by this conception only brought about chaos.
They were known as... dark elves.
No matter who conceived the child or what colour the human father was, the baby would be born with dark skin. If that was all there was to it, then it wouldn't be a problem. The problem was that these dark elves had a very bloodthirsty nature and nothing could be done to change it. As they grew up, they only knew how to kill, their only desire was killing. Even as babies, they were violent.
To make matters worse, they had physical strength that surpassed even the orcs by multiple times and their magical ability was far greater than regular elves. Setting everything else aside, the last straw was that they had a deep hatred toward their own race; elves. They would instinctively attack and kill any elf first in a group of people.
This was the reason the elves passed down laws on both genders.
Yet, things didn't end there. Though the human women had learnt their lesson, the men were different. Due to the elven women's beauty, they still coveted them. Although the law was respected by the elves, it was not respected by the humans and so it led to elven women being kidnapped and raped.
Some of the women who were lucky enough to be left alive reported this after returning to the elven kingdom. This led to conflict between the elves and the humans. At first it was only a minor issue, till more and more elven women fell victim to the clutches of humanity. It also led to dark elves being born and raised in the wild, leading to the deaths of many people.
Although the fault laid with humanity, the other races such as the orcs blamed the elves whenever a dark elf would massacre their kind. This in turn led to a major conflict between the elves and everyone else. Due to this the elves had a complete falling out with the humans and passed a death law on any woman found to be Intimate with a human.
Over time the chaos was eventually brought under Control, however, to this day the elves had a deep hatred toward humanity.
"Shouldn't I have helped you then?" Craig replied.
"That's not what I meant. Even now you're putting yourself in danger by being with us. Do you not know the consequences of your actions?" She explained. She couldn't understand what was going through Craig's mind at all.
Craig suddenly stopped walking and looked at the woman. "Judging from your tiaras you're from a noble elven family. This land we live in has been peaceful for many years, but the scale is starting to shift again. If the orcs were to kill the two of you it would be bad news. First of all, us humans might be implicated which would lead to war and secondly, the elves would find out it was the orcs and that would also lead to war." Craig explained before he began walking again.
The woman followed behind him. "So your goal was to prevent a war from breaking out?" She asked rhetorically. "In that case, if our deaths didn't lead to war would you have helped us?" She suddenly asked.
Craig was stupefied by this. What kind of question was that? How could he not save two damsels in distress. Regardless of the history between their races, or the laws or the chance of war, how could he ignore the plight of two beauties. Even if they were ugly he would still not stand by. "War or not, I'd still have helped you. In the first place it was one of you who rescued me and saved my life. It could most likely be her." He said as he looked at the woman's face on his shoulder. She had already passed out long ago.
Judging from the scream he heard and the voice of the conscious woman, he could only assume that the unconscious woman was the one who might have freed them.
"I see. She did mention freeing a group of captives that didn't contain our people. I had even scolded her for it." The woman said ashamedly. "Never would I expect her act of kindness to return so quickly."
Craig laughed softly at the woman's words. It would seem the only elf with a heart among these people was the one who rescued him.
"Her name is Maeli, "The woman stated suddenly. "she is my personal attendant and I am..." She hesitated for a moment before saying. "I am princess A'ina, the fifth princess of the elven kingdom."
"What!? Princess!?" Craig blurted out uncontrollably. "I thought you were just a noble elf!" He was really surprised by this. Earlier on he had already passed out when she stated her identity to Morak.
A'ina giggled sweetly at Craig's reaction. "What, are you scared now? You've already come this far." She actually found the will to joke at a time like this.
Suddenly the atmosphere between them had become as if it were two friends chatting. It was due to a change in A'ina's attitude towards him. She let her guard down a bit more after finding out it was possibly Maeli's action of rescuing him that had propelled him to help them.
"Scared?" Craig replied with a chuckle. "With these balls what could I possibly fear?"
"Are your balls really that big?" A weak voice sounded near Craig's ear. It was Maeli, she had regained Consciousness just in time to hear him bragging about his body parts.
"You're awake?" Craig asked in surprise.
"How do you feel, are you okay Mae." A'ina asked with a worried expression. 'Mae' was the nickname she used to address her.
"I managed to suppress the poison temporarily." She replied. Then as she looked around she asked. "Where are we?"
"I honestly don't know. He said he's taking us to see a doctor." A'ina replied.
With a pondering expression, Maeli shifted her gaze to Craig's profile.
Shing!
She suddenly formed a blue dagger in her had and pressed it against Craig's neck. "Put me down!" She threatened.
"Maeli..." A'ina called out in surprise.
"Milady we can't trust a human. We don't know where he's taking us. Not to mention he's a man." She advised sternly. However right after saying so, she coughed out a mouthful of black blood and the dagger vanished from her hand.
Craig, who was on the verge of dropping her immediately tightened back his grip. "Idiot! She had already suppressed the poison but by using her magic she has sped it up." He said gravely. Then he looked at A'ina. "I'll ask one more time, princess do you trust me or not. If you think I have ulterior motives I'll drop her and leave right now. You'll never see me again." He was serious as he said those words. After all, he wasn't obligated to help them.
"I'll be honest with you. I have my apprehensions, however I've already chosen to trust you." She replied.
"Alright then." Craig nodded.
"And don't call me princess. Address me by name. It's A'ina in case you've already forgotten." She added.
"Alright, princess A'ina. My name is Craig. Craigavon Stormfrost." He replied.
"Craigavon? You're named after the human capital city?" She asked feeling rather surprised.
Craig nodded. "It's a long story which I'll tell you later. Right now we need to rush in order to save her life." He looked at Maeli as he said this. "There aren't many people in these parts so we don't need to worry about being seen together, but I think it's best if you hid your tiaras."
A'ina nodded and put away their tiaras.
Then the two of them rushed through the forest at the fastest speed possible. It wasn't the fastest they could go, but if Craig ran any faster it would be detrimental to Maeli's condition.
The orc camp they had escaped from was at the border between the human and orc kingdoms. From that camp they ran East for four hours before finally arriving at a bamboo forest.
There was an entire grove of bamboo trees taking up a large expanse of land in the middle of the forest. Amongst the bamboos were several pathways that made underneath seem like a paradise.
"Is this the place?" A'ina asked in a breathless manner as she took in deep breaths. She was sweating profusely and her complexion was slightly pale. Even her hands and lips were trembling.
Craig was about to reply but when his gaze fell upon her he his expression changed. They'd been in a hurry to get Maeli medical attention as soon as possible. With this on his mind Craig had let it slip his mind that A'ina was also in a bad condition. According to her words it would worsen over time. "Is this the backlash you spoke about?" He asked.
A'ina nodded and forced a response. "It's... Only just... Beginning." Then as if she had reached her limit of endurance she collapsed to the ground.
"Andre!" Craig called out like a clap of thunder.
Shortly afterwards a short and fat man in a red leather outfit came rushing out amongst the bamboos. "Why are you shouting so desperately? Huh? Elves!?" The fat man looked confused and terrified at the same time. "Craig you couldn't have stooped this low..."
"Help me bring her inside. Don't ask, I'll explain once we're inside." Craig interrupted with a command.
Andre could only sigh and do as Craig said as if he was used to Craig issuing commands.
They carried A'ina and Maeli to a large bamboo hut within the bamboo forest.
"Doc." Craig said as he entered the hut.
Standing near a large black cauldron was a thin old man with white hair, dressed in a long grey robe that touched the floor. He had a large spoon in his hand stirring the contents in the cauldron.
"What trouble did you bring me this time?" The man asked with an indifferent expression. It was as if, nothing could make this man smile, or laugh or cry or show any emotion. Even after seeing the two elves he had no reaction at all.
"One is poisoned with white scorpion venom, as for the other one, I only know she's suffering from a backlash of some kind." Craig explained.
"He didn't even bother to explain why they're elves! This brat..." Although he didn't show it on his face, the old man was complaining on the inside. He sighed and then pointed to a large bed at he back of him. "Lay them down first."
Craig and Andre placed the two women side by side atop the bed.
The old man walked over and checked on Maeli's condition. He checked her wrist, raised her pupils, inspected her tongue and even cut her clothes to inspect her chest. Then he walked over to a shelf and took a small bottle with a black liquid inside and forced a spoonful down her throat.
It was an antidote for White Scorpion venom.
Then he moved to the opposite side of the bed and did the same inspection on A'ina. A while later he let out a deep sigh. "I'm afraid I can't save this one." He said as he shook his head perplexedly.
Craig was surprised to hear the old man say such words. According to his knowledge, there was no illness the old man couldn't create a remedy for. To state that he couldn't without even trying, was his old age withering his ambition?
"Can you really not save her?" Craig asked worriedly. Now that he knew that A'ina was a princess, it would be even worse if she were to die. Whether she died from a backlash or not, the elves wouldn't let the matter go easily.
The old man shook his head. "It's not that I can't save her, it's that no one can." He stated helplessly.
"Why father?" This time it was Andre who asked the question. He too thought that the old man was acting rather strangely.
"This condition of hers, there's no mistake. She's suffering from Dragon fever." The old man replied.